Back from my quick trip to Finland, which I really enjoyed to be honest. My hosts were great, we had a fantastic meal at a swanky Italian restaurant (Sasso, downtown Helsinki) and then met a few friends from Housemarque and went to the popular Kalle club until the early hours where I chanced upon Dean Bent and a bunch of the Nokia boys. The night ended pretty vaguely all told (given I'd been up way early in the day) and since my shirt stinks of Sambuca, I rather imagine a good time was had.
The next day tested my professional metal, having to be up at 8am for a 9pm meeting (given that this was +2hrs GMT) but manage it I did and I was on time, it a little rosey from the entertainment the previous night. Fortunately my meeting went really well (I get the impression that this was reciprocated) and a good lunch also followed before I jumped in a cab for the airport.
At the airport, I was in a long check-in queue when I got a message from Pelit magazine (Finland's premier gaming mag - who we know right from our Amiga days) and they asked why we hadn't visited them (I think Tuija had seen my Facebook update) so given I had 2-3hrs before the flight, I thought' "Bugger it" and jumped into a cab to go and say hello for 30mins. Unfortunately having googled the address of Sanoma (the company that Pelit is part of) the taxi took me to the head office and not the Pelit location, so I didn't get to see them after all :( I've promised to drop in the next time I'm ever in Finland/Helsinki... it meant another 30mins in a cab too, which amusingly enough saw a confused looking driver collect me on the return trip - the same one who had dropped me off minutes earlier - and surprisingly (for a Finn) spoke little English.
The flight, tax-free shopping and everything went mostly according to plan and even the traffic played ball on the way back home, which I was fretting about - the M62 is bad enough on a quiet day, let alone 5.30pm on a Friday evening...
Got home to find the missus had 'booked me in' to take some pics of her nieces for a family xmas present for her brother (large canvas of the girls) so I had that to arrange and am actually quite pleased with the work given I rarely do portrait shots. - am thinking of getting a couple of decent studio lights and a backdrop and offering my services to family and friends since I do enjoy it. A pal recently told me that he'd been asked to do a few 'glamour shots' for a friend... but I don't think I'm quite ready for that!
In addition to the shoot, I also got chance to wade through my email inbox and along with the positive meeting in Finland, there were a bunch of other things which have contributed to making it an official "good news week". Hopefully this also means that Leeds will win tomorrow :)
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